Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English (Old Version)

Cut my writing down by 50% because I dont have to go back and correct everything I write. Only thing I had to get used to ,was thinking in complete sentences, which when youre typing, you tend not to do. Do always go through the training exercises it suggests, and learn how to use it by reading what it is capable of, and how to do it. That way, you get full benefit from the software. Be warned it is VERY resource hungry, so throw the fastest processor and at LEAST 4GB of memory at it, otherwise it will frustrate you.

I finally moved to a Jabra GN 9350 headset that I could use a for both my phone and with Dragon. Dont try to go any cheaper, in fact when money is no object Ill probably upgrade to a similar set up made by Plantronics. I tried going with a Bluetooth USB connection and a Plantronics Bluetooth Voyager 520, which works okay. Going to the better wireless connection of the Jabra made all the difference since then Dragon considers it as a USB connect versus a Bluetooth connection. Definitely suggest going through the training, allowing it to go through your other documents for keywords and phrases, setting up your industries keywords and phrases with the right punctuation and capitalization in the Vocabulary section. Sure can make all the difference in your dictation output. One other item, be sure you go in and delete some words that may come over from the scan of your documents that you use infrequently or may be all in caps because of a presentation or title. I think this will make your job a lot easier, I know with my stiff fingers in the amount of emailing and letters I have to do, this is the only solution that works for me.

I have spent the last three days trying to download Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English by Nuance Communications, Inc. to no avail. At the time Isaw nothing in the description indicatingfor 32bit windows only. I happen to have 64 bit Windows 7 Home Premium . Please note I am not editing the text of this review to display just one aspect of the Essential Tremor, since Iam nolonger 9able write cursive or print anymore. The computer is my communication life line in spite of the fact that that I can no longer type and can only 2 finger type (one finger on each hand). LOL! This is very time consuming! I was expecting that Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English by Nuance Communications, Inc.enable me to improve this one aspect of my life. To me this was a commmunication life line. But if you cant SET IT UP than you cant use it. So it becomes USELESS ! I saw my husbands doctor using it and was impressed that it enabled him to better serve his patients. This is what prompted me to make the purchase. It seemed to be the Ideal solution for my issues. WRONG!!! Made Right!!! I mentioned to the doctor that I was so impressed with his using the Dragon Program, that I had ordered the dragon for home use. He told me that there is a learning process involved but you wont be sorry you bought it. Needless to say this conversation took place after I vented my frustration in the above review. However, I took to heart what he had said and really did not want to send the program back to Amazon so I contacted the Nuance Communications, Inc. I have to say that their service people are outstanding. They worked very patiently and diligently with me until we were able to identify the problem. It was a manufacturing fluke and they are replacing the Dragon Program. I just had to confirm the purchase. I have since learned of an acquaintance who who had also purchased the Dragon Program from Amazon and she raves about it. So I am sure I will be praising my experiences as well.

Im still learning it and its still learning my voice but already it relieves a major headache for me transcribing my notes or just plain dictating. I do have to go back and fix errors but its still faster than typing myself from scratch. Although there are tutorials, I wish there was live tech support on specific issues. For example, how to teach it the difference between spelling out paragraph or period and performing the function. Its a tremendous time-saver, I can dictate in about 3-5 minutes what would take me 15 minutes to transcribe. I love this product.

I am a physician and bought this program to work in the EMR. I bought this version solely because of the cost. I have used the medical version and it is a little more straight forward to use. That said I find that I can dictate using my iPhone and the program is very good about understanding even most medical terms. It is not possible to dictate directly into the EMR but as long as the cursor is in the right place it is easy to get the data into the EMR. So I would recommend this for clinicians who do not want to spend the money on the medical version.

I received my Dragon NaturallySpeaking premium 12 a week ago and struggled with it at first. To make a long story short, the whole problem was the microphone on the headset that was included with the software. Since I purchased a better microphone, I have had absolutely no problems at all using Dragon. My advice to anyone who is having trouble with the software is to try it first with a better microphone before you give up. The software seems to be an excellent product. Nuance Communications would be better off sending no microphone then sending a lousy one, which makes people think that the software is impossible or difficult to use.

Why oh why do you have to buy headphones with this software? They didnt work well (at all) and the $40 set from Best Buy (which I had to get to use the software at all) worked fine. Drop the headphones and sell the software as a digital download. Good software, dumb packaging. That is why I removed 2 stars - very annoying user experience due to somebody being convinced that their users would be too dumb to get a decent set of headphones - solved by them getting bad headphones for everyone... opportunity knocks. :- )

I tried this software out back when speech recognition was in its infancy and I was not impressed. Imagine having to spend nearly 20 hours to training your software. And then it was not portable. But now that smartphones and hands-free devices in cars can use speech recognition near flawlessly, I though it was time to give it another shot. WOW! What an improvement. The speech to text functionality is amazing. The command functions dont always work, but I prefer a more hands on approach when opening software or navigating my GUI. This product advertises portability, although I have yet to try it. I would highly recommend this product if you do a great deal of typing and want to be freed from your desk. Imagine walking around the room or house (depending on how good your wireless headset is, dont skimp on the headset purchase, youll regret it) all the while dictating a letter, article, or email. Who needs a treadmill desk when you can actually leave the computer and continue typing.

Before you purchase Dragon 12 you may want to read their privacy policies, and if youre okay with them, then youll find the program works okay with Windows 8. It is slow though. You will find that Nuance installs a 3rd party program on your computer called Common Software Manager that automatically loads upon starting your computer. According to Nuances Privacy Policy, Nuance is not responsible for how that 3rd party collects and uses information about you and your computer habits. Nuance (the maker of Dragon) Privacy Policy link: [...] Im sure those who are die hard fans of Dragon will vote this review as not helpful. That is a common practice with online reviews even when someone is giving an honest experience. However, my review is simply informational. If youre alright with the habits of Nuance then theres no problem for you, buy their software and enjoy it. It does work. Update: If you go to the Nuance community forum youll find a lot of people concerned about the forced installation of Common Software Manager. ( Forum link: [...] ) These types of 3rd party programs can, in some cases, be vectors for malware infecting your computer. The link to remove the Common Software Manager: [...]

Ive been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking since 1997 and will continue to do so. My policy is not to upgrade every time a new version comes out - its never worth it! Having use the preferred edition of 9 for a little over 4 years, I am extremely pleased with the accuracy and speed of Dragon 12. It still, however, has difficulty typing text into certain Internet places and, like before, the dictation box doesnt always help. 2 other small complaints: not enough selections in the correction box and no ability to select a phrase and have Dragon capitalize that phrase in title case. I used to be able to just say caps that, but no more. I will gladly find my way around the little problems, however, in order to gain the improved accuracy. And the Amazon price is great!